The Last One (The One Trilogy #1)

by Tawdra Kandle

Sam stretched an arm to wrap around me. “I think I’m tired of talking about catfish. And I’m definitely ready to stop fishing.”

  I reeled in my line. “If we don’t fish, whatever will we do now?” I blinked up at him.

  “I think I can figure out something.” He took my rod with his and leaned them against the cab of the truck. When he returned to the riverbank, he pulled me to my feet and tugged me close for a kiss.

  His lips teased, first only touching the corners of my mouth and then sucking at my bottom lip. When I tried to angle my mouth to his, he framed my face with his hands and ran his tongue against the seam of my lips. I opened willingly, but he didn’t plunge his tongue as I expected. Instead he stroked the inside of my mouth, touching and then withdrawing until I was ready to cry with frustration.

  He stopped abruptly and bent down. Before I could question him, he’d scooped me into his arms, holding me against his chest as we walked to the truck.

  “The first night I saw you, I carried you from my truck to that loaner car. You’d been passed out the whole ride into town, but when I held you like this, you opened your eyes and looked up at me. I thought you might panic, but you only smiled, whispered something and touched my face.”

  “I remember that, a little. I woke up the next morning with the hangover from hell, and when Laura told me what had happened, I had just a quick flash of memory—of your eyes.” I reached up to trace the lines of his cheek. “What did I say to you that night?”

  Sam’s eyes shifted away from mine. “I don’t know. It was just something you mumbled.” He set me on the tailgate of the truck, and I scooted backwards while he climbed up to join me.

  “Thank you for saving us that night.” I leaned over to kiss his cheek. “I don’t think I ever said that.”

  Sam shook his head. “I think you did that day at Boomer’s, but I was being too much of an asshole to tell you that it was my pleasure.” He laid one finger on my lips and then ran it down in a straight line to my cleavage. He used that finger to tug one side of the neck of my shirt down, exposing a bra made of purple lace.

  “Oh, baby. Where do you get these? Do you have one in every color?”

  I giggled. “I guess you’ll have to keep checking to find out.” I said it without thinking, and then reality hit me hard; tonight was the last time Sam would be enjoying my bra and what it held. He frowned, and I thought he might say something, but instead he brought his lips to the stiff peak beneath the lace.

  I loved the way Sam looked at my breasts and especially how he touched them. His eyes held reverence as he palmed them, lifting each one. And his fingers on my nipples drove me to the point of frenzy. He took his time, sucking and licking, using his teeth with just enough pressure to send shots of need right down to my center, making me crave more. More of everything.

  “I love your breasts.” As though he’d read my mind, Sam spoke, watching his fingers bring my nipples to hard nubs. “Your eyes go hazy when I do this.” He lowered his mouth again and sucked before he caught the nipple between his teeth and rolled it. “And when I do that, it’s like your body can’t be still. You start wriggling like if I don’t take you now, you’re going to explode.”

  “That’s exactly how it feels.” I took his other hand in both of mine and placed it on the breast his mouth wasn’t laving. “I think I could almost come just from watching you suck on my boobs. It makes me crazy.”

  Sam made a low sound deep in his throat. “I never want to stop. I want to take you so hard tonight, so fast, but at the same time, I want to make every single touch last forever. Does that make sense?”

  “Yes.” I lay back onto the pillows. “I feel the same way. I want you now, but I don’t want it to end.”

  He pushed up onto his hands, staring down at me. I wanted him to tell me that it didn’t have to end, but he only brushed the hair out of my face. “I’ll make it last as long as I can. I promise.” He skimmed his fingers to my waist and rolled my shirt up. “But first, I want you naked under me.”

  I sat up and peeled off my top and then reached behind my back to unhook the purple bra. Sam leaned back to watch me, his eyes hooded.

  Sitting in just my skirt, I paused to let him take me in. Slowly, I brought my hands to my breasts, lifting and squeezing them. I ran my fingers over my nipples, still damp from Sam’s mouth. Pinching them, I whispered his name. “I can still feel you here. Mmmmm.”

  “You’re killing me.” His voice was husky. “Take off your skirt now.”

  “This?” I picked up the cloth that covered my legs. “I think I can do that.” I rose onto my knees, unbuttoned the waistband of the long cotton skirt and let it fall in a pool of material on the quilts. When Sam saw the string and lace that passed for my underwear, I thought his eyes might roll back in his head.

  Holding his gaze, I slipped one hand between my legs, first touching myself over the lace and then pulling the underwear aside. Sam’s mouth dropped open, and his tongue darted out to wet his lips. I wriggled the panties down to my knees, but before I could get them completely off, he had me on my back.

  “I’ll finish this.” I wasn’t sure what he meant, but I trusted him to do it well. He slipped the underwear over my feet and tossed the panties over his shoulder.

  “Sam!” I giggled. “I think you threw them into the trees.”

  He shrugged as he crawled over me. “I did. And when I find them someday, I know I’ll get hard, just remembering how goddamn sexy you look, lying here naked and wet, ready for me.”

  As if to make his point, he reached his hand between my legs and parted my folds with one finger. I let my knees drop to the side and arched my neck, moaning. Sam brought his mouth to my sex and circled the small bundle of nerves that craved his attention, adding more pressure with each swipe. He teased my entrance without slipping his fingers within, driving me into a frenzy of need as he brought his lips to my ear.

  “Come for me now, babe. I want to make you come so many times, you can’t move. Do it now.”

  He twisted his hand so that his thumb covered my clit while he finally plunged two fingers inside me. Shrieking, I bucked against his hand as pleasure burst through me, spiraling upwards, and my body pulsed around his fingers. Before I could begin to recover, Sam replaced his fingers with his mouth, but there was nothing gentle here. He speared his tongue into me, over and over, and then moved up to suck on my sensitive nub, his lips relentless. His tongue stiffened to lick me, and my body moved without my control, clutching at his hair and crying out again as another climax, more powerful than the first, gripped me.

  My chest was heaving as my breath came in short pants. “God, Sam.” I fisted his shirt in my hand and pulled him up to me. “You’re wearing way too many clothes. Get rid of them.”

  “Your wish.” He pulled off his shirt, and before it hit the truck bed, I had my mouth on his skin. If this was the last time I was going to be able to enjoy him, I was going to make every second count. I paused only long enough to let him shuck off his jeans.

  In the moonlight, he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. His skin gleamed beneath the sprinkling of soft hair on his chest, the line tapering down to his stiff cock. His legs were roped with strong muscles from years of hard farm work, and his eyes were filled with hunger.

  I wanted it all, and I wanted it now.

  MEGHAN’S EYES WERE LIQUID green as she stared at me. She was soft and pliant after coming twice, but I could almost feel her desire growing again. Her hand closed on my cock, stroking up and down. She squeezed the head, and I moaned, my control slipping away with every movement of her fingers.

  And when she took me into her mouth, my vision tunneled.

  She watched me watching her as she lowered her lips around the shaft, taking me inch by inch until I hit the back of her throat. Her tongue circled, and then she sucked hard as she withdrew. Her eyes never left my face, and my entire world shrunk to her mouth on my skin.

  “I’m not going to last long with you d
oing that.”

  “Mmmhmmm.” The vibration of her voice added a new dimension to Meghan’s brand of delectable torture. She lifted her mouth and stroked me with her fingers. “Why is that? Because it feels good?”

  A groan was all I could manage. “You have no idea.”

  “Does it make you crazy? Because that’s what I want. I want this to be the only thing you can think about. I want this to be why you live and breathe.” She brought her mouth to my cock again and moving faster, pumped her mouth up and down. “I want every part of you to burn for me. Only me.”

  “I do. I am.” I dug my fingers into her thick hair. “And now I want to be inside you.”

  Meghan swirled her tongue over me one more time before she raised her head and slid up to my face. “That’s good, because I need you inside me now.”

  I flipped her over and brought my knees between her thighs as she parted her legs again. “You’re going to come again, and I’m going to feel it with my cock buried in you.”

  Her eyes dilated until they were nearly black. “I’ll be happy to help you with that.” She guided me to her entrance as I lowered myself. Rubbing the head of my dick over her slick and swollen folds, she raised up to take me.

  I didn’t need a second invitation. I slid within the tight sheath that was still pulsing from her last orgasm. “Meghan, you feel so good. So perfect.” I stroked within her, finding the spot that made her writhe even more. Balancing on one arm, I took both of her wrists in my other hand and pinioned them above her head, then brought my mouth to one tempting nipple, sucking hard.

  Meghan gave a strangled cry, and her frantic movements drove me ever closer to the edge of my own release, and I plunged faster, sure and strong.

  “Sam.” I opened my eyes, looking down at Meghan’s face. Tears ran down her cheeks, and she was biting her lip. “Don’t stop, please. Don’t stop. Sam—” Her voice rose, and the sound of my name on her lips, the sight of her tears, drove me to come as she rocked her hips up one more time. As my body tensed, I dropped my lips to her ear, whispering her name over and over.

  It took several moments before my vision cleared and my breath came back. I fell to Meghan’s side, dropping one arm over my eyes. I wanted to hold her closer, stroke her hair, murmur little meaningless words to her. But her departure was a tangible thing, lying between us, making it harder for me to reach out, knowing that soon she wouldn’t be here.

  Tonight we could connect, over and over, until the sun came up. Tonight we could play and giggle, pretend that this time would last forever. We could ignore the rest of the world and make this small clearing on the river our only reality. But it couldn’t last. When tomorrow came, as it inevitably would, she was leaving, and I’d never see her again.

  Meghan’s mind must have been following the same paths as mine, because she rolled over to me, slipping one arm across my stomach and laying her head on my chest. Her face was still wet with tears, and without looking at her, I brought my hand to her cheek and swiped at the wet there.

  “The first time I saw you here, at Boomer’s, I thought I’d never see you again. Which sounded like a good thing, because I was so mad. But I was wrong.”

  I smiled, knowing she couldn’t see my face. “That night on the side of the road—” I began.

  “Wait, which night? With Laura, or the night we ...” Her hand drifted lower to caress me.

  “With Laura. When I first saw you. Even though you were passed out, and we only had that one moment when your eyes opened, there was something that made me ...” I wasn’t sure how to say it. I was a farmer with a business degree, not a poet. I struggled to find the right words. “Something that drew me to you. I wanted to hold you in my arms longer. But I told myself that was crazy, and you were a college kid, and we’d never have anything in common. And when I drove away, I thought it was okay, because I’d never see you again.”

  “And then we ran into each other at Boomer’s, and you realized you were wrong.” She kissed my chest, and my heart sped up.

  “Yeah, and I handled it like a champ.” I shook my head. “When I walked into my living room and saw you there back in June, I think part of me decided the third time had to be the charm.”

  She nuzzled into my neck again. “Are you sorry, Sam? That we had this summer? Do you wish you’d talked me out of it?”

  I brought my arms down to draw her closer. “Never. I know we got off to a rough start, but these few months—” I swallowed and tried to ignore the stinging in my eyes. I hadn’t cried since my parents’ accident. Hell if I was going to start now. “They’ve been good. Fun. I’m glad we could be friends.”

  “Friends. Yes.” She echoed my words, but I couldn’t decipher her tone. “I’m glad, too.”

  Silence surrounded us. I ran my fingers up and down her arm as the frogs chirped and the crickets sang. Meghan was quiet for so long that I thought she might have fallen asleep until she turned over, propping her chin on my sternum. “I’m hot.”

  “Yeah, baby, you are.” I brushed the back of my knuckles over her cheek.

  “Goof.” She swatted at my hand. “I want to go for a swim.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “You do? I thought you were afraid of snakes and frigid water.”

  She pushed herself up. “No, not tonight. I want to do everything. I want to swim with you, and I want you to take me hard in the water. And then I want to come back here and lick all the water off your body and take our time to make love, take it so slow we think we’re going to die from waiting.”

  I studied her eyes, bright with unshed tears, desperate to forget that tomorrow would come. Touching her lips, I smiled.

  “Then that’s what we’ll do.”

  WE DRESSED IN THE early morning, both of us sated and sleepy. My stomach clenched as I watched Meghan lean over to pick up her shirt, her boobs swinging. I didn’t know how she could make me hard again after the night we’d just shared, but she did.

  As if by silent agreement, we hadn’t talked about anything serious for the rest of the evening. Meghan cried again the last time I sank between her legs, and I’d kissed away her tears, but I didn’t ask her why she wept and she didn’t bring it up.

  The truck rocked us up and down over the potholed road, and I reached to hold her hand. Her fingers squeezed mine, painfully, as she stared out the window.

  I pulled into my normal spot alongside the barn. A stream of sunlight broke through the dim glow of dawn, and for a moment I watched the beam dance on the sparse grass of the path that led to the fields.

  Neither of us moved. This was the last minute, and once I opened my door and went around to help her out of the truck, the spell would be broken. Summer—at least, my summer with Meghan—would be officially over.

  I wasn’t ready. I knew it with certainty, but knowing it didn’t change the facts. And the facts said that Meghan still had another year of college, and by her own admission, she wasn’t looking for anything long-term or permanent. She was recovering from her dad’s death, and she was struggling to figure out who she was. I had a hunch that the series of short-term hookups and boyfriends were over; there was still pain in her heart over what had happened with Owen, and that wasn’t going to go away any time soon.

  I didn’t know what I was going to say until the words spilled out of my mouth. “I was wrong in what I said to you at Boomer’s that day, and what I said the night we had sex the first time. The night alongside the road, that is.” I shot her a grin and gripped her hand tighter. “When we met, I only saw your immaturity. It was what I wanted to see, because setting you up like that let me keep you at a distance.” I stared out the windshield. “But what I didn’t see then, and what wouldn’t let me keep you at arms’ length, was your heart.”

  She drew a long, shuddering breath, but she didn’t respond.

  “Meghan, your heart is beautiful. It’s kind and loving and compassionate. I’ve seen you with Bridget, and with the rest of the kids in your class, and I’ve seen you with people
in town. You ... you draw them in. And that’s because of the person you are.”

  She shook her head, full out sobbing now.

  “You’re going to have any future you want. It’s all bright and shiny, you know? The world is open to you. I hope you take it and run. I hope you shock the hell out of anyone stupid enough to underestimate you. And I hope that sometimes, you think back on this summer, and me, and you smile. I hope you remember me ... well. Not the raving lunatic, but maybe the guy who took you fishing.”

  I couldn’t say anything else. I reached for the handle that opened my door, but before I could move out of the cab, Meghan grabbed my arm. “Sam. I don’t want to leave. I don’t want this summer to be over. I don’t want us to be over. It hurts, and I can’t stand it.”

  I pulled her close to me, my arms tight around her shoulders. “Shhh, babe. I know. But it’ll get better. Leaving is hard, but you know you don’t belong here. This little town can’t hold the future you have. You’ll go down to Florida and be with your family, and by the time you’re back in Savannah for school, it won’t hurt anymore. You have so much to look forward to.” I forced myself to try to make the words believable. “And so do I. A lot of work, yeah, but I’m going to have time for fun now, too. You’ve reminded me of that. So thank you.”

  I kissed the top of her head and opened my door. “Come on. You need to get a little sleep before you leave. I don’t want you nodding off on the road.”

  I closed my door and struggled to get myself under control as I walked around the truck. When I reached the passenger’s side, Meghan gave me her hand and let me help her out.

  I wrapped her into my arms, holding her one last time. I could feel the pounding of her heart against mine, her breasts crushed to my chest. Her tears wet my shirt, and her curls tickled my chin. When her sobs slowed, I leaned back, and gripping her chin, I kissed her with slow surety, pouring everything I’d felt this summer into one last shared touch.

  I stepped back, rubbing her upper arms. “Go on inside now. Go to bed and get some sleep.” I dared to lift my fingers to her cheek one last time. “Sleep well.”